KINGSTON – A west-end city councillor is seeking a study of the vulnerability of drinking water sources in the rural parts of the city.

City council on Tuesday unanimously supported a request from Loyalist-Cataraqui District Coun. Simon Chapelle for the city to ask the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority and Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Public Health to conduct a study of groundwater vulnerabilities in the rural parts of the city.

“This has been an evolution of a discussion on water security,” Chapelle said. “As a council, we are charged with taking action for the greater good of our community, in support of offering residents and supporting services that individual residents can’t do on their own.”

With the exception of only a handful of areas, mostly along main roads, municipally provided water service does not reach rural addresses.

Drinking water wells for many properties in the rural parts of Kingston tap into water sources in areas characterized by thin soils and fractured limestone bedrock that make them vulnerable to external contaminations.

“In talking with a number of constituents and delegations, they have expressed concerns about water security to myself and other members of council,” said Chapelle, whose district includes rural area around the Westbrook area. “What this motion is really designed to do, it is meant to allay those concerns of rural residents by asking staff to collaborate with the Cataraqui Conservation Authority and revise the Cataraqui Source Protection Plan.”

Loyalist-Cataraqui District Coun. Simon Chapelle is calling for a study of the condition of rural water supplies in Kingston. (Elliot Ferguson/The Whig-Standard)Elliot Ferguson /
Elliot Ferguson/Whig-Standard

Sources of groundwater or aquifers are considered to be “highly vulnerable aquifers” when there is an insufficient protective layer above the aquifer, according to the conservation authority’s 2015 Cataraqui Source Protection Plan. Without enough protection, these aquifers are likely to be “signicantly and adversely affected from external sources.”

Many of the areas where water seeps into the underground aquifers, recharge areas, are also vulnerable to contamination.

Chapelle said the data used in the Source Protection Plan was collected in Kingston in 2007 and 2008, and while the conservation authority completed a flood map, Chapelle said there was no mapping of groundwater vulnerabilities.

“This is something that may come out in the research that this is something that needs to be addressed,” he said.

But the Source Protection Plan acknowledged the difficulty creating such maps can pose.

“Because of the complexity of the geology in the Cataraqui Source Protection Area, precise mapping of these aquifers is difficult,” the conservation authority document stated. “As a result, vulnerability scores, which are dependent on the presence and thickness of overlying soil, could vary over very short distances.”

Chapelle’s call for a closer look at the vulnerability of rural drinking water was welcomed by rural councillors.

“In the rural community, water is life,” Countryside District Coun. Gary Oosterhof said. “Our groundwater is in stress.

“My area of Countryside has what is known as a high-volume acquirer, this is why this motion is so important,” Oosterhof said.

Chapelle said an upcoming review of the provincial policy statement and the city’s official plan, and the effects of Bill 108, could have an impact on the protection that is in place for groundwater supplies.

“There are a lot of balls in the air,” Chapelle said. “I just wanted to be sure our council members take the concerns of our rural constituents to the forefront.”

While all councillors supported asking the conservation authority and public health to conduct the study, Lakeside District Coun. Wayne Hill said they should be careful for what they wish.

“I just want to make sure people recognize the potential here,” Hill said.

“If the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority or the health unit come in and indicate the water table is at risk here, that is going to have a significant impact on the property values of all of those folks that live in that district,” said Hill, adding that studies like these can contain “nuanced language.”

“I think you need to be a little bit careful here about asking the right questions.”